One of the first and foremost ways to mix the difficulty up is to have unlockable difficulties. If you beat the game on Hard mode, you unlock Wicked mode. Completing the game on Wicked unlocks another higher difficulty with an increasingly excruciating name. Theoretically, this adds replay value to the game as the players looking for a challenge will play the game again at the progressively higher difficulties. However, many players do not like the idea that you must prove your worth in order to access all the game has to offer. They feel that they should not have to be "at least this good" in order to even attempt the higher difficulties. I think that, if your higher difficulty truly changes things (see below), that it is fair to do this... once.
Next up, what does the higher challenge really mean? As I said, usually the enemies hit harder and have more health. Often, this means that fights just take longer, but the only real added challenge is a new test of patience. If we really want to add challenge, we will have to do more than just power up the enemies. The obvious answer would be to change the AI. The AI would get smarter and faster as the difficulty went up. However, programming one set of AI is difficult enough, but to make multiple sets would take a colossal amount of time and energy. Halo 3 claimed to do just this. I played Halo 3, and found no noticeable difference in the AI between the difficulties. I'm waiting for some developer to do this (and do it right) because it really will be worth the investment.
So, what if we let the player change the difficulty at will during the game? What if we even let them change it during a fight? Also, in RPGs the player tends to start off very weak. So what if we increased the difficulty as the player advanced in levels? There is one game that has tried both of these, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Oblivion has a difficulty slider that can be accessed at any time through the pause menu. Except when experimenting, I've left it in the middle as per the default. The game has its hard parts, but I've found that it is fairly easy to progress through at a steady pace. I once watched one of my friends play the game. He would charge into a room, get surrounded and have the snot kicked out of him. As he was one his last legs, he would pause the game, zero out the difficulty slider, and then trash the remaining enemies. After he was back to full capacity, he would reset the difficulty, and continue into the next room. Mind you, this happened in every single room. So, about every minute or so, the slider would get moved. It would appear that the ability to change the difficulty on the spot is something which is easily abused.
Oblivion also increased the difficulty has your character advanced in levels. Every couple of levels you advanced, the enemies would receive upgrades. Weaker enemies would be outright replaced by stronger foes. Bandits would start wearing better armor and wield better weapons. So, the game would get harder. On the flip side though, the loot dropped would be better and those better weapons and armor used by the bandits could become your if you killed them. For me, the increased difficulty/loot meant I blasted myself to level 20 as fast as possible. Level 20 was when the upgrades stopped, so if I leveled to it then I would be grabbing the best equipment possible. However, for most people, this upgrade system had the opposite effect. Your character will continue to grow in power, even if you never cash in a level up. This means that most players remain level one throughout the entire game. I've seen numerous people complain that the game is effectively unplayable if you level up ever. This is odd to me, considering I try to make characters with obvious handicaps to try and increase the challenge a little. My main character is a very powerful caster, but takes 175% more damage from all magic cast at him. This means that I'm fine, until I come up against an enemy caster, at which point every move is a matter of life and death. All the while, my difficulty slider remains in the middle.
Here is where I mention what game I think has done this difficulty thing the best. After thinking about it I've decided I give the award to Neverwinter Nights. While it has the same problem Oblivion did of having a difficulty slider that can be moved in mid battle, it does enough other things right to outweigh that problem. The main part it does right is that the difficulty affects more than just changing the enemy's health. Certain spells will not affect the player at lower difficulties, namely those that would allow an enemy to take control of them. At hard mode, your spells that affect an area rather than a single enemy will begin to hit your allies if they are caught in it. Of course, the standard changes to enemies are still there but the game goes beyond just the basic changes and that's what puts it above the rest.
What do you think of variable difficulty?
A boss from Demon's Souls who, like all bosses in that difficult game, will eat you up.
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